We left Raglan at 8am and made it to Waitomo for about 10.30am. Yesterday we decided that we wanted to stay in Waitomo for 1 night. It's not a mandatory stop here because the caving activities can be done during the day and then the bus drives on a few more hours to another place to stop for the night. We wanted to do a Waitomo Caves tour that was different to the company that Stray deal with so it meant we'd need to stay over.
So the bus dropped us at our accommodation for the night, Kiwi Paka Backpackers Hostel. Decent place and we got a big 4-bed dorm with Dean and Jodie.

We all decided to do the Black Abyss tour with The Legendary Black Water Rafting Co. A bit pricey at $220 (£110) each, but it lasts 5 hours.
We were picked up by their mini bus at 1.45pm, in time to get started at 2pm. We were kitted out in a wet suit, wet socks, gum boots, abseiling harness, hard hat with a light and some other bells and whistles - looked a right sight! Awful putting the cold wet suits on as well.

We jumped in the mini-bus and made our way to the caves. First we had to practice abseiling down a grass slope. Did that a few times, then we had to jump in the air to take photos. This woman, who thought she was a bit too good at abseiling, jumped in the air for the photo but jumped backwards, and the abseil rope pulled her back in and yanked her to the floor...I shouldn't have laughed but it was really funny.

Now for the real thing. We had to go one by one and abseil into the abyss down a 35 metre hole in the ground. There was no light other than that on my helmet. As I got further inside, it got pitch black and I couldn't hear a thing. I had no idea how far was left to go and there was very little light from the hole above. Then, finally I saw a platform to land on and one of the instructors turned his light on. It was pretty scary actually. I had no idea how high I was and I was in full control of how fast or slow I went, so if I made a mistake, I could've gone hurtling down. Therese wasn't looking forward to it all, but she did it no problem in the end!

We had to wait in the cave until everybody made it down. It was freezing down there. We could start to see a few little blue lights, which are the glowworms, but there wasn't very many. Although the more our eyes adjusted to the darkness, the more we could see.

Once we were all together again, we walked further into the underground caves. Time for the Flying Fox - one by one, we were attached to a zip line sent into a pitch black cave with no lighting whatsoever other than thousands of glow worms on the ceiling of the cave. It was amazing to see all the little blue dots that look like little LED lights. And as I was flying down the zip line with my mouth wide-open staring at the ceiling, I hit the stopper on the line and was thrown all over the place. The instructor pulled me off the zip line and then I had to get with the rest of the group sat in a line watching everyone get prepared to fly down. We could see them up on the cliff edge, but they couldn't see us. All the head lamps got turned out, and then you'd hear someone coming down screaming. Whilst we were sat there and our eyes adjusted, we could see more and more glowworms - thousands of them.

After everyone finished the flying fox, we all sat on an edge that dropped about 15 feet into water. The water was so still though and it was really dark that it looked like it was just an endless cavern! We were given a big chunky flapjack each and a cup of hot chocolate - lovely and I'd just said to Therese I could do with something like that.

Then it was time to get wet. Black Water Rafting it's called. We had to jump into the water below us with a tyre inner tube held behind our butts and I had to go first. We had to jump and land on our backside in the water. I didn't half land hard and sunk down into the water quite a bit then popped back out - it was absolutely FREEZING! By the time everyone was finally in, I was shaking like a leaf. Not only is the water cold, but the air is freezing too. Then we had to hold onto some rope and pull ourselves deep down into the cave along the water. It was pretty big inside and had really high ceilings. Once we made it to the bottom, one of the instructors told us all about the glowworms and how actually they are flie lavae, or maggots, and that the glowing is actually poo! Not so nice! Other insects are attracted to the glowing light, and actually dangling from that is a really sticky line. Pretty disgusting - have a read on the Internet.

Then we linked up with our legs under each others arms, turned all our lights out and the instructor pulled us back through the water back down the huge cave. It looked absolutely amazing. There's thousands of little glow worms lighting up the cave, and they make the water shimmer.

Then it was time to properly get into the water. We had to wade and swim through the water to a slide. We slid head first down there to make sure we got wet. Cut all my hand on the razor sharp rocks though. Then went wading and swimming right on through the caves. We saw a flipping eel in the water. Creeped me out did that. Made me wonder what else was lurking around, but apparently there is very little and the eel got lost.

We waded through the water and walked through streams then had to wriggle through a small hole! That was a bit more freaky. It's all pitch black too. The only light is that on you head light. And even the light from all the other peoples head lights doesn't brighten the cave up at all. I was the last person in the line a lot if the time as well. It felt like something was watching me and even when I turned around and shone my light down the cave, it didn't brighten much up. Not somewhere I'd like to get lost or stuck!!

Time for another pit stop. This time we had some big chunks of chocolate and warm orange squash. Nice!

We walked further into the cave and through the water and it was getting to neck level. We had to swim through! Then we had to climb up an underwater waterfall which was fantastic. The instructors showed us where to climb up and we had to avoid getting close to the water as there are sometimes small rocks and things flying down. It was really cramped where we had to wait - low ceiling and not much space for us all.

Then we had to crouch and crawl along another cave to get to another waterfall. This time we could see daylight at the end though! Climbed out into a small stream, which sends it's water flying down into the caves. Back on the surface!

We jumped back in the mini bus and got back to base to get showered and changed. Hot shower was lovely. And hot soup was waiting for us with toasted bagels! Exactly what we needed. We ate them and watched the photos that the instructors took during the day, which were pretty good, so we bought a CD of them with Jodie and Dean. It only cost $20 (£10) and we split the cost.

It was a fantastic experience. Really, really good! We did so much and it was definitely well worth the money. Abseiling, flying fox, black water rafting, climbing underground waterfalls and it was amazing to see the glowworms.

We got back to the hostel around 7.30pm. We weren't hungry from all the stuff we'd eaten so didn't need any tea.
Got a proper shower and then went down to Curly's Bar for a few drinks. There's a couple of other tour buses staying here tonight, so it was packed. We got talking to a few from them and had a good laugh in there actually. Played some pool for the first time in ages too - only $1 (50p) a go!